The Hodelâs story spans two great pandemics.
The north Bakersfield dining institution can, in a very real sense, trace its origins to the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918.
Today it totters on the precipice of commercial survival. The COVID-19 outbreak, and consequent, government-mandated countermeasures, have closed Hodelâs Country Dining, the buffet-style landmark, after 53 years, at least temporarily.
And the Hodel family really doesnât know what comes next.
âEverythingâs on the table,â concedes Bob Hodel, who opened the restaurant in 1967 and moved it to its present location just off Olive Drive, at Knudsen Drive, a year later. âEverything.â